Optimization of multispectral chalcogenide glass for large-size fabrication

• Published in: Optics letters Vol. 48; no. 6; p. 1431
• Main Authors: Yang, Liu, Liu, Hongjun, Dai, Shixun, Lin, Changgui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 15.03.2023
• ISSN: 1539-4794
• DOI: 10.1364/OL.479835

Chalcogenide glass has become one of the essential IR lens materials in passively athermalized long-wave IR devices. However, that there is no multispectral chalcogenide glass capable of large-size fabrication raises challenges to the development and popularization of multispectral imaging systems combining visible, near-IR, and mid-IR. In this work, we developed a novel chalcogenide glass capable of a record-big (Ø120 mm) fabrication through the compositional optimization of GeS -Ga S -CsCl glass with introduction of Sb S . Its transmission window is characterized as ranging from 0.51 to 11.2 µm, which means it could be employed as a multispectral lens transmitting visible and IR signals in a co-aperture IR optical system. In addition, a method of three-stage thermal analysis is proposed to evaluate the glass-forming ability of chalcogenide glass through simulating the melt-quenching process of chalcogenide melt in a vacuum-sealed silica ampoule. This work not only shows an innovative multispectral chalcogenide glass with promising applications but also introduces a simple and convenient technique for screening chalcogenide glass with ultrahigh glass-forming ability capable of large-size fabrication.